Extent of student participation in decision making in secondary schools in Kenya.

Abstract

This study investigated the extent of student participation in secondary schools in Kenya. The study was prompted by the recurrent student unrest in Kenya; often blamed in media and research to unequal decision making opportunities in schools. Data was collected by means of a survey questionnaire distributed among 300 secondary school learners and thirty teachers. The findings revealed that though there attempts to include views of students in school policy, such attempts were mainly tokenistic and did not extend to core management issues. Students were only allowed to participate in student welfare issues but were deemed to be immature and therefore unable to participate neither in administrative issues such as managing funds and budget nor in curriculum issues such as teaching methods or number of exams. It was thus concluded that student participation in secondary schools was still wanting and needed to be expanded to include issues beyond student welfare issues.